You are here

The All In One Cuisine - Maharashtrian Cuisine

How about experiencing a culinary art that has achieved perfection in wide range of cooking styles and flavors? From extremely hot & spicy to mild & sweet flavored dishes, from sea food to local herbs, lentils & vegetables, from regular and staple dishes to extremely rare & festival dishes; what if just one culinary art provide you all of this? Is that possible? Can you experience almost all kind of flavors from the culinary art of just one state of India?

Well, I won’t say you can experience ‘all’ kind of flavors but yes, you can definitely experience a huge variety of flavors in just one cuisine. Please wait for a little more time. I need to tell you a short incident which happened in the train while I was travelling to Goa. The train from north India passes the nearby states Maharashtra & Gujarat. Now, we north Indians are big foodies so we never missed a chance to taste the dishes which were available at each stop of the train. Along with us travelled a quiet man who only spoke to tell us that, “Child, the vada pav of Maharashtra is better than Gujarat”.

That was a perfect moment for a person like me to start an argument and tell him that Vada Pav originally belongs to Gujarat and you can never get a better vada pav in Maharashtra. But yes, he proved me wrong right there and exactly at that moment, I made the decision to write about Maharashtrian Cuisine. The people of Maharashtra are not only adept in their own culinary art but have also proved themselves to be better in other culinary arts than the natives.

Regular Meals And Staple Dishes

Though I would have liked to explain a bit about the history and the cooking techniques of Maharashtrian Cuisine, but as I have already started talking about the food, I want to go on with this. While the wheat, jawar, bajra, rice, lentils, fruits and vegetables form the staple food in this cuisine, the kind of presentation this cuisine practices is seriously appreciable. The food in Maharashtrian Cuisine is served on a thali and each kind of food has a specific fixed place in the thali which is never going to be ignored or forgotten. Oh! The rules of cooking. People practice them with such a dedication. Isn’t that amazing?

Rice and Bhaajis are the most common foods which are cooked daily in Maharashtra. Bhaajis are the vegetable dishes which are prepared either from one vegetable or from a number of vegetables mixed together. Don’t tell me that you haven’t heard about Pav Bhaaji. Everyone in India loves this Maharashtrian dish. Do you?

The non vegetarian dishes involve use of either chicken or mutton. Seafood is also a favorite of many Maharashtrians.

Appetizers And Snacks

Just a few days back I discovered that all those snacks which I’ve loved since many years actually belong to Maharashtrian Cuisine. For example, chivda which is also known as Bombay Mix worldwide has always been my favorite for breakfast. Many other lip smacking snacks like upma, vada pav, pav bhaji, shira, pohe, sabudana vada etc are popular in Maharashtrian Cuisine and I would seriously suggest you to taste each of the ones I mentioned. These form part of regular food in north India as well. Yes, they are that tasty.

Other Foods in Maharashtrian Cuisine

Well, this heading should’ve been something else but when I compare other foods in Maharashtra with the snacks, Snacks would definitely come first in my list but this definitely not mean that other foods in Maharashtrian Cuisine are less. The vegetable preparations like Amti & Bhaji, meat preparations like mutton kolhapuri & Chicken Maratha, Soups like Tomato Saar & Varan, pickles like Ambyache Lonche & Limbyache Lonche and sweets like Puran Poli & Modak are equally toothsome.

The variations found in the Maharashtrian Cuisine owe to the different regions of Maharashtra. All the regions are famous for their special art when it comes to cooking.

Staying in Maharashtra and tasting each dish of each region of this state is something I long for since a very long time and I can definitely bet on it that you would drool over the food once you see it. You will keep longing for more and more. Thus is the effect of this culinary art – the Maharashtrian Cuisine.